This section introduces aspects that may be helpful to facilitate a better understanding of the inventions. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.
In cold environments, some large microwave antennas, e.g. (two meters or larger diameter) may accumulate a significant amount of snow and ice. An ice shield may be used to support the weight of the ice, and a sway bar may be used to prevent the antenna from rotating around the horizontal axis of its mounting hardware. However, in some installations, the ice shield and/or the sway bar may be undesirable or impractical. In many cases, without the ice shield and/or the sway bar, the antenna may suffer permanent damage and become unusable. For example, an elevation rod used to position the antenna direction relative to the horizon may deform, requiring inconvenient and costly repairs by the antenna operator.